Most Americans have never
heard of the HMT Rohna and what
happened on that fateful day of
November
26,
1943.
One
JuneauCountyserviceman was a passenger
on this British transport ship  Corporal Howard Edmund
Olson.Howard E. Olson was born
in the town of
Plymouth on
June
13, 1909, to Knute and Liv
(Johnson) Olson. On
May 19,
1942,
he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Force and was proudly serving his country
with the 322nd Fighter Control
Squadron.

On
November
25,
1943at
Oran,
Algeria, Howard boarded the
Rohna headed for the China-Burma-India theater.
Destination was
Port
Said,
Egypt. There was a crew of 195, along with 1,981 American troops and 7
Red Cross personnel. The
Rohna sailed along with four other ships and joined a convoy
that same day; she was the second ship in the port column, for
a total of 24
ships.The following day the
USS Pioneer joined the convoy.
According to
2nd Officer Wills of the
Rohna, there were no warnings of
enemy aircraft received.

Before dawn on November
27th a German HS293 glider bomb was dropped
by a Henkel 177 bomber which hit the
Rohna.The device blew open a huge hole near the after end of the engine
room and the No. 6 troops deck. Hundreds died
upon impact.After the explosion
that destroyed the Engine Room, the ship was engulfed in flames and started
to sink.It was impossible to
lower the lifeboats on the portside due to the side plates forced outwards
by the explosion.Many of the
lifeboats on the starboard side were lowered but were soon capsized because
of the hundreds of troops that were already in the water and trying to climb
into them.Others perished from
cold and exhaustion while darkness and rough seas hampered rescue
efforts.A total of 1,015 American
troops, 3 Red Cross personnel, and 120 crewmen
perished.

Stories were told of desertion of the Indian
crew, equipment failures, and the deplorable condition of the lifeboats and
rafts.Then there were the cold
waters of the
Mediterranean
Sea, the darkness and the
heavy seas, which made the rescue operations
difficult.The
United
States,
British, and French rescue ships worked courageously to save the passengers
and crew who made it off the
Rohna. One
U.S. ship, the USS
Pioneer, picked up 606 survivors.

The
HMT
Rohna was the first transport
ship carrying
U.S. troops to be
sunk during
World War II. Also,
two important but unknown historical
events occurred at that time. It was the first
successful "hit" of a merchant vessel at-sea carrying US troops by a German
remote-controlled, rocket-boosted bomb, and it resulted in the greatest loss
of troops at sea in
U.S. history.

It
was so devastating that the U.S. Government
placed a veil of secrecy upon it.The events which followed, were so shameful
that the secrecy continued for decades until recently, when documents were
released under pressure of the Freedom of Information
Act.

In January of 1944 Howards family received
word from the War Department that on
November
26, 1943, he was missing
while a passenger on a Allied troop ship en route to
India.No other details were
given.So many other families
received the same message.

Howards squadron continued on to
India and then to
China where they were based at
Kunming assigned to the 14th U.S. Air Force,
also known as the Flying Tigers.

Howard is listed on the Tablets of the Missing
at the
North
AfricaAmericanCemetery at
Carthage,
Tunisia.He
was awarded the Purple Heart
posthumously.

Howards obituary, dated
May 4, 1944, is
as follows:

MEMORIAL SERVICES HELD
FOR CORP. HOWARD OLSON

Memorial services were held April 30, at
East
Lemonweir church for Corporal
Howard Edmund Olson.Corp. Olson
was reported by the War Dept. as missing
November
26, 1943 when an Allied
troop ship on which he was a passenger was sunk as a result of enemy
action.

Born
June
13, 1909 in the town of
Plymouth, Howard was a son of Knute and Liv Olson, both
deceased.He was baptized and
confirmed in the East
Lemonweir
church.Before entering the military
service on
May
19, 1942, he made his home on the Mrs. Knute Johnson farm, where he had
employment.

Surviving Corp. Olson are his wife Una Mae; three children, Glenn,
Allen and Doris who make their home with relatives at Elroy; and a brother,
Maurice Olson of Racine.

For more information on the tragedy of the
HMT
Rohna you can go to the following websites: